Colorado’s state legislature passed more than 330 new laws and resolutions this year, on the heels of two consecutive years exceeding 500. And despite some commendable wins, it’s fair to question the economic benefits of all that legislating.

Achieving the social services, educational quality, and sense of community we all aspire to requires economic prosperity. And that demands growth-friendly policy designed to enable not only businesses, but people to move up the economic ladder.

Lawmakers must look in the mirror and ask some basic questions. Did the bills that passed make Colorado more attractive to employers and employees? Are we more competitive or economically empowered? Are we increasing the economic mobility of residents in our state?

The answers are uncomfortably easy: No. In fact, the evidence suggests that, thanks largely to left-wing progressives, Colorado is rapidly regulating itself out of business, and the opportunities for employee prosperity are suffering as a result. The trend would be exacerbated if not for the veto pen and thoughtfulness of Gov. Jared Polis.

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Less than a decade ago, Colorado regularly ranked among the top states in the nation in which to do business. Our reality has changed quickly, as we trend downward on the national economic scale in rough proportion to the upward trend in regulations. Job, wage and GDP growth rankings have all shrunk in recent years, while the costs of living and doing business in Colorado surge.

Colorado’s unemployment rate is higher than the national average and ranks among the highest (sixth) in the country. The state’s labor force participation has declined to its lowest point in nearly three years. Meanwhile, job growth in Colorado remains sluggish and has consistently trailed the national pace for more than a year now.

As recently as 2018, the state’s economy ranked among the top 10 in the nation and Colorado ranked fifth in the CNBC rankings of Best States for Business. By 2023, our economy ranked 32nd and Colorado’s cost of doing business was among the worst, ranking 38th. Clearly, we’re headed in the wrong direction. But the wounds are largely self-inflicted.

Colorado shared the same challenges of COVID-era disruptions as other states, but our lagging recovery can be significantly attributed to two factors: a lack of workers with the needed skills, and the mounting effect of regulations. The state’s shortage of housing availability and affordability also weighs heavily, due in part to government over-regulation and zoning. As liberal New York Times columnist Ezra Klein and Atlantic staff writer Derek Thompson rightly point out in their latest book, “Abundance”, our continued housing crisis — along with rising homelessness, gentrification and Colorado’s swelling commuter traffic — can be traced directly to the anti-growth attitudes embodied by strict zoning laws and low building permits.

Is it any wonder it’s difficult to compete when 71% of Colorado Chamber members say the local business climate and costs are more burdensome than in other states where they do business? Three-quarters believe in-migration has slowed due to the high cost of living and housing made worse by state regulations. The struggle to find enough workers has reached the tipping point.

As challenging as workforce issues are, nearly half (48%) of businesses surveyed by the Colorado Chamber say the burden of “legislation and regulations creating mandates and costs” is the biggest challenge they face. And just when it seemed impossible for lawmakers to attach another anchor to the Good Ship Colorado, they passed in 2024 — and failed to amend or repeal this year — a stunning new job killer: the AI Regulatory Restrictions bill.

I eagerly await the explanation from lawmakers who supported the bill when tens of thousands of our younger generation ask why Colorado has so few AI jobs compared to other states. The painful truth is simple: Colorado now proudly leads the nation in AI restrictions and legal liabilities.

This isn’t just a tech company problem; it’s a problem for every company. AI is permeating all industries, and this job killer bill creates widespread liabilities and obligations for every company and every use, even for tasks like sorting resumes. Since any differentiated harm from AI promises to be insignificant in comparison to the harmful effects of thousands of under-employed or unemployed young Coloradans, we will keep asking our elected officials to answer that question until they fix it.

If Colorado hopes to return to its pre-pandemic economic standing, lawmakers must be willing to consider reasonable compromises while working toward policies that promote competitiveness, innovation and affordability. This is not just about being business friendly, it is about being individual opportunity friendly.

Rather than creating additional hurdles to achieving such goals, legislators must shift their focus toward establishing incentives for employees and businesses alike. Instead of channeling efforts toward vexing policies like a bill that threatened to drive Uber out of the state (vetoed), passing unworkable AI laws (as mentioned above, in need of a rewrite), and other prosperity-hindering legislation, consider the many ways to address both the cost of living and the cost of doing business in Colorado.

The bottom line is there is much more work to be done, beginning with addressing the unfinished business legislation of AI rules, zoning and similar anti-opportunity regulations through sensible compromise that enhance Colorado’s competitiveness on day one of the 2026 session.

Though lawmakers have gone too far for too long, it’s not impossible to stop the bleeding and recover. We’re still Colorado after all, and we can expect to have between 300 to 500 new opportunities to legislate some economic benefits for our residents next year.

Kent Thiry retired as chief executive of DaVita in 2019 and now puts his energy and the resources of the Thiry-O’Leary Foundation into three primary pursuits: economic mobility and education for low-income students; democracy renewal; and conservation.